Van Helsing was going to be a female homicide detective who hated Dracula references because of her name, her partner was going to be Det. Cotford, as I mentioned earlier. Other literary and historical characters were going to weave in and out of episodes, ie. Countess Elizabeth Bathory aka the Blood Countess, Lord Ruthven, Carmilla, the Count of St. Germain (a real historic person who is believed to be immortal). Eventually Dracula forces the descendants to band together against a common foe.

 

Q: What was it like working with Mickey Rooney?

 

A: For me, it was terrific. I mean the man is a living legend. He’s been in the entertainment industry since Vaudeville was king, then he did silent films and then the golden age of Hollywood, since then he’s been on Broadway, and won an Emmy and he still continues to work. He was going to play Van Helsing in a stage production of ‘Count Dracula’ that I was producing but the timing never worked out. He said with a sigh if there’s anything else I can do let me know. When I decided to shoot a promo video to illustrate the tone of the series I asked Mickey Rooney to narrate as Prof. Van Helsing. It was to illustrate how Bram Stoker’s description of how to destroy a vampire, and the narration went over footage of how Dracula was ‘killed’ at the end of the novel... which contradicts what is being said. Bram had left it open for Dracula to return. I faxed Mickey Rooney’s agent the script, I spoke to Mr. Rooney briefly on the phone and he recorded two takes. Both were great, just a slight difference with intensity. His agent sent me the tape of the recording session.

 

Q: What is Dracula 97? Are you a member of any Dracula or Vampire organizations?

 

A: Dracula ’97 was a centennial celebration of the publication of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. The event took place in Los Angeles in August 1997. Fellow Canadian Professor Elizabeth Miller was one of the main organizers. She was the one who told me about the event. It attracted hundreds of Dracula fans, ranging from fans of the films to scholarly symposiums surrounding the novel to researchers of the historic Vlad Dracula. It ended with a grand masquerade ball. It was a blast!

 

I was a member of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula (Canadian Chapter), which was around the time I wrote my Dracula sequel novel in Bram Stoker’s style. Elizabeth Miller was kind enough to read my manuscript and discuss it with me over lunch.

 

Q: Can you tell us what it entails to do the historical research for something like Dracula the Un-Dead?

 

A: It entails looking up old maps, street names, historical characters and how to tie it in with the existing classic novel. Coming up with names was fun. There is an Inspector Huntley in the novel; Raymond Huntley was the first actor to play Dracula in a stage adaptation of the book. I suggested the new villain be Elizabeth Bathory a historical character known as “The Blood Countess”. Other research included figuring out how actual Parisian and London locations looked like in 1912. Two characters escape through a London canal that no longer exists in present day. One interesting challenge was finding a way to get a character from the French Riviera to Paris in less than a day. The railway system in France at that time was not that good. The fastest way was to fly, but air travel was in its infancy in 1912. However, I discovered a historic character named Henri Salmet who had an aviation school in the Riviera but was the first to set the long distance and speed record by flying non-stop between Paris and London on March 7, 1912. So, in the novel, the urgency of getting to Paris became the motivator for this historic event.

 

Q: How long was the research process?

 

A: I had already done extensive research on Dracula for the many projects I have done, and Victorian London for ‘Bloody Mary Kelly’. Writing commenced on the novel in winter of 2007. Right from the opening chapter to the very end, there was a considerable amount of historical researching to do to make it as authentic as possible.

Even in the final editing stage, a huge battle was changed from an estate in Exeter to a subway tunnel in London. So I had to research the ‘Underground’ in 1912 – some of the stations, the schedule. It was tricky to find what a London underground train car looked like in that time.

 

Q: You adapted, directed and produced a staged reading of Dracula the Un-Dead in October 09 for the release of the book. What was that experience like?

 

A: It was terrific. It was staged at the Bathurst Street Theatre, which used to be a church in the late 1800’s and has retained most of its architecture. I had some very talented actors involved and they matched the descriptions in the book. Some had also been involved with my dramatic reading of the original Dracula twelve years earlier. We had original live music scored by Kieren MacMillan, a talented Canadian composer, who I had worked with before. The characters were costumed by award-winning designer Alex Amini who has costumed most of my theatre and film productions. We had projections onto a fogscreen, which was visually effective for mood and setting. The authors were the narrators and came in a few hours before the show to a quick run-through with the actors. The theatre was packed, and I was told that the line up to buy copies of ‘Dracula the Un-Dead’ was bigger than any other event for this book.

 

Q: After that you directed A Christmas Carol – The Musical. Is it hard to go from Dracula to A Christmas Carol?

 

A: Not really, a Christmas Carol is ghost story – as was quoted by Charles Dickens. I think there were times that I made A Christmas Carol creepier than Dracula. As a film director and a theatre director, I love it when I can mix the two mediums together. So I had filmed the actors playing ghosts for various live special effects where I projected the ghosts on scrim and fog, etc. Once again there were many talented people on stage and behind the scenes bringing my warped vision to life. Most people are familiar with the story of Scrooge and his ghostly visitations; but seeing it ‘live’ has to be magical. I had fun watching the audience’s reaction to seeing the various transformations ‘live’ in front of them. The music and choreography added so much to make the production so spectacular.

 

About Alexander Galant:

As well as a writer, Galant is also an accomplished director in both theater and film. In theater he received the Adjudicator's Award for Innovation, for Incorporating Animation, Computer-Generated Effects and Film Sequences with live actors in The Wizard of Oz and received a similar Thea Award for Singin' in the Rain for which he made it rain across the stage. Other theatre directing includes: A Tribute to Judy Garland, Love Letters, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, The Odd Couple, A Christmas Carol the Musical and Twelve Angry Men. Alexander Galant also adapted and directed a staged reading of Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the 100th Anniversary in 1997, paying homage to Stoker’s original reading.

 

Films directed by Alexander include: The Missing Piece currently on the festival circuit and recent “Silver Remi Award” winner for ‘Suspense Thriller’ - WorldFest Houston Film Festival; Moonlight Desire (a Dracula video) for which Mickey Rooney lent his voice as the character of Prof. Van Helsing; The Jigsaw Puzzle, which has been screened at film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Salem and Milan, receiving the “Special Festival BUZZ Award” (most talked about film) from the New York International Independent Film Festival. His more “artsy” vampire film, First Light, has been screened in festivals all over the world, winning several awards including: the “Bronze Remi Award” from WorldFest Houston Film Festival, “Special Commendation” in the Festival of Fantastic Films (UK), “Best Music/Soundtrack” in the Toronto Online Film Festival, and Nominations for “Best Director” and “Best Technical Achievement” from the International Festival of Cinema and Technology (World Tour Film Festival). His short Star Wars spoof entitled Blasted Behavior was selected by George Lucas as one of the finalists in AtomFilms’ 2009 Star Wars Fan Film Competition.

 

Alexander Galant has recently signed with New York literary agency, Writers House. For more information on Alexander Galant visit alexandergalant.com